Paul Gilgunn

Paul Gilgunn is a composer and musician working across avant-garde classical, improvised, and underground music. He has collaborated and performed with composers Rhys Chatham, Tony Conrad, David Daniell, and Jennifer Walshe, and his ensembles regularly feature outstanding musicians, such as Nick Roth, Jay Oglesby, Robbie Malone, Conor Brady, Ray Boyle, and Danny Snow. His work encompasses a variety of forms, genres, instruments, and techniques in projects that often involve cross-disciplinary activities with literature, video, video games, and visual art.

He holds a BA in Music and English (DCU), an M.Phil in Popular Literature (TCD), and a PhD in Music (Goldsmiths, University of London). His doctoral thesis (2017) studied aesthetics and practice in Rhys Chatham’s pioneering works for electric guitar, and was supervised by Professor Keith Potter, one of the foremost authorities on minimalist music.

He has taught music in a professional capacity for over a decade, and remains passionate about music education. This includes working with the Music Generation partnership in South Dublin to provide access to music education for all young people in that area. As an educator, his areas of interest include cultural theory and philosophies of music, musicology, music theory, performance, post-1945 composition, and underground music.

Paul is currently preparing collaborations, installations, performances, and recordings featuring music for analogue synthesiser, electric guitars, electronics, percussion, and voice. For information on his work see gilgunn.org